Connacht Final. Mayo v Sligo. July 19.

[ballinaman]

I hope you stayed to the end for the players' sakes. Big chat on Shannonside yesterday about the Sligo ( bandwagon) supporters leaving so early.

Where I was, very few Sligo supporters left early which is a credit to them given the scoreline. I was at the Munster final last year and half way through the second half, a small shower of rain nearly emptied the place of Cork supporters

That family had be back for their dinner I heard to be fair to them

[Shrewdness]

Some of ye Mayo lads should ease off on the whinging and complaining. It's referees, venues, how ye're management were selected, ticket allocations and where in the ground those tickets are for, Hyde Park, anything to do with Roscommon etc. And now the latest one!! The quality of speech delivered by someone presenting ye with the Nestor Cup!! If he said very little, he'd have probably been accused of being bitter towards Mayo...Go on lads, ye have an outstanding team, full of class with a loyal support. Some of that support need to show a bit of class as well and not be bitching about every little thing..This could yet turn out to be the best year of ye're lives. Enjoy it.

[macdanger2]

I hope you stayed to the end for the players' sakes. Big chat on Shannonside yesterday about the Sligo ( bandwagon) supporters leaving so early.

Where I was, very few Sligo supporters left early which is a credit to them given the scoreline. I was at the Munster final last year and half way through the second half, a small shower of rain nearly emptied the place of Cork supporters

That family had be back for their dinner I heard to be fair to them

[macdanger2]

Some of ye Mayo lads should ease off on the whinging and complaining. It's referees, venues, how ye're management were selected, ticket allocations and where in the ground those tickets are for, Hyde Park, anything to do with Roscommon etc. And now the latest one!! The quality of speech delivered by someone presenting ye with the Nestor Cup!! If he said very little, he'd have probably been accused of being bitter towards Mayo...Go on lads, ye have an outstanding team, full of class with a loyal support. Some of that support need to show a bit of class as well and not be bitching about every little thing..This could yet turn out to be the best year of ye're lives. Enjoy it.

Jesus, the Rossies are nothing if not defensive, both Carew and H&C could learn a thing or two from ye!!!

[ballinaman]

Some of ye Mayo lads should ease off on the whinging and complaining. It's referees, venues, how ye're management were selected, ticket allocations and where in the ground those tickets are for, Hyde Park, anything to do with Roscommon etc. And now the latest one!! The quality of speech delivered by someone presenting ye with the Nestor Cup!! If he said very little, he'd have probably been accused of being bitter towards Mayo...Go on lads, ye have an outstanding team, full of class with a loyal support. Some of that support need to show a bit of class as well and not be bitching about every little thing..This could yet turn out to be the best year of ye're lives. Enjoy it.

What about that Roscommon steward on the town end terrace who was farting consistently through the game? Surely you can't defend that shrew? And there were no flakes left for a 99 in the garage on the way home. Absolute fcukers.

[Maroon Manc]

Sorry for not posting til now - I'm not the type for ducking but just didn't get a minute to do it. Congrats to Mayo. Very strong all over and it will take a really, really good team to beat them. That game did them no good though. It was a disgrace and I lay the vast majority of the blame at the management's door. As Mano rightly said - we were lambs to the slaughter with absolutely no game plan. Some in Sligo are willing to give management a free pass because we've made some progress (weren't fighting relegation and beat a dreadful and totally complacent Roscommon team) but the magnitude of the mistakes must surely be taken into account. I never believed we'd win the game and didn't even back Sligo +7 but thought we'd be competitive. We should have been.

As for Hyde Park - thought it was grand. I took a longer route than most and had literally no traffic. Met a few sound Mayo folk (honestly - they exist - who knew!!!!) behind the goal at the town end who in a funny way made the debacle slightly less painful. They were sympathetic but Gaels (who know everyone has their pride) so they tried not to be, if you get my meaning. I'll remember them for that. Got a bagful of free protein shakes which was possibly the highlight of the day!!!!

Could have been my gang Magpie! We were there.

I dunno how ye could have been more competitive though. Forwards did very well. But it was always going to be a hard game to manage for Sligo. This Mayo team does not get much respect ( no Mayo team ever does really), but they are  probably the best we ve seen. Galway 98 - 01 would not have done that to a Sligo team. Neither would Ros 77-80. 

I remember the 2002? final v Galway in Castlebar. Sligo had a real shout in that game. I was iffy about the way they set up. Cosgrave was left picking up Joyce. I remember shouting 'he s done him' when Joyce got behind him while the ball was in flight. That decided it but back then things were different.

Lots of good footballers on that Sligo team. The problem is though getting bigger men that can play as well. Conditioning and getting promoted. For a start I d have that full back in midfield where he can play a bit of football ( which he can) rather than have him hung out to dry at fb. I don t think Sligo need to beat themselves up too much.

Arf, Galway were more concerned with saving their best performance for the biggest game of the season in 98 and 2001.

[Mano]

Some of ye Mayo lads should ease off on the whinging and complaining. It's referees, venues, how ye're management were selected, ticket allocations and where in the ground those tickets are for, Hyde Park, anything to do with Roscommon etc. And now the latest one!! The quality of speech delivered by someone presenting ye with the Nestor Cup!! If he said very little, he'd have probably been accused of being bitter towards Mayo...Go on lads, ye have an outstanding team, full of class with a loyal support. Some of that support need to show a bit of class as well and not be bitching about every little thing..This could yet turn out to be the best year of ye're lives. Enjoy it.

In fairness Mayo fans do like to have a whinge and a moan. Although I can understand their anger at the Limerick venue debacle and Cormac Reilly referring performance last year. Personally I didn't understand their issues with Hyde Park. The pitch stood up well despite the inclement weather of the day before. The standing on the terraces can be a bit of a discomfort for older patrons and also for the youngsters to get a view but overall I thought the venue was fine.
Mayo have a fantastic team and backroom staff who always give of their best no matter who they are playing so I suppose they have to direct the complaints somewhere.

[Lar Naparka]

Some of ye Mayo lads should ease off on the whinging and complaining. It's referees, venues, how ye're management were selected, ticket allocations and where in the ground those tickets are for, Hyde Park, anything to do with Roscommon etc. And now the latest one!! The quality of speech delivered by someone presenting ye with the Nestor Cup!! If he said very little, he'd have probably been accused of being bitter towards Mayo...Go on lads, ye have an outstanding team, full of class with a loyal support. Some of that support need to show a bit of class as well and not be bitching about every little thing..This could yet turn out to be the best year of ye're lives. Enjoy it.

Jeez, Shrewdy, me oul'buddy, you need to get rid of your Mayo persecution complex before it takes over completely and you wind up like Rossfan.

We weren't the only ones to complain about the choice of venue, were we?
If you care to remember, the Sligo CB complained as well- and with damned good reason too. You are complaining about Mayo fans wanting to know where in the ground their tickets were for!
FFS, what did you expect them to do?
That's something that should have been sorted out long before the start so you wouldn't have hordes of fan searching about for their seats and getting in the way of others.
The fact that a Roscommon man made the speech doesn't bother me. The fact that he blathered on for so long with so little to say did. If it was a warm, sunny day and I were to know that he is so long-winded , I'd have brought a rucksack along and ask somebody to wake me up when he ran short of breath.

[Shrewdness]

Do you see what i'm saying Lar?. Still complaining .

[Jinxy]

I thought it was a great speech.

[moysider]

I thought it was a great speech.

Could have been. Wasn t listening. Switch off for species. Something I learned to do to survive.

[mylestheslasher]

Some of ye Mayo lads should ease off on the whinging and complaining. It's referees, venues, how ye're management were selected, ticket allocations and where in the ground those tickets are for, Hyde Park, anything to do with Roscommon etc. And now the latest one!! The quality of speech delivered by someone presenting ye with the Nestor Cup!! If he said very little, he'd have probably been accused of being bitter towards Mayo...Go on lads, ye have an outstanding team, full of class with a loyal support. Some of that support need to show a bit of class as well and not be bitching about every little thing..This could yet turn out to be the best year of ye're lives. Enjoy it.

In fairness Mayo fans do like to have a whinge and a moan. Although I can understand their anger at the Limerick venue debacle and Cormac Reilly referring performance last year. Personally I didn't understand their issues with Hyde Park. The pitch stood up well despite the inclement weather of the day before. The standing on the terraces can be a bit of a discomfort for older patrons and also for the youngsters to get a view but overall I thought the venue was fine.
Mayo have a fantastic team and backroom staff who always give of their best no matter who they are playing so I suppose they have to direct the complaints somewhere.

There are bog roads in Offaly more level than the pitch at Hyde park, its a total shite hole in my opinion. Whats worse its been like that for decades and nothing seems to have changed. I can handle the old looking ground but surely something can be done about the pitch?

[weareros]

Given that it was a famous occasion - Mayo winning 5 in a row (the bashdards) - I thought The Rock did a great job of being in the zeitgeist. Should Mayo win the All-Ireland (God preserve us), I would hope 10 minutes will be spared on the DVD so future generations can enjoy the speech. The crowds on the pitch was nice to see, a  thing of the past for most football grounds. Awful that Ros town ran out of icecream but certainly down through the years I've always noticed the Mayo supporters old and new have to be sluppering at a big old ice-cream cone on their way to find their car past the mart but in fairness always kind enough to say "hard luck lads" before they go back to the slurp slurp slurph ah feckit it's melting.

[Blowitupref]

We weren't the only ones to complain about the choice of venue, were we?
If you care to remember, the Sligo CB complained as well- and with damned good reason too

Was just a untrue rumour that spread around during the build up it seems.

Roscommon County Board Chairman Michael Fahey quote.

some of the stuff that has been said and written is utterly untrue. The harsh reality is that a Connacht final in Salthill would have resulted in traffic problems at the height of the summer," he stated.

The chairman confirmed that Sligo had opted for Dr. Hyde Park and that the capacity of the stadium would be raised from 18,900 to 23,500 for the provincial showpiece on Sunday week.

"Sligo had the choice where the game would take place. They were obviously reluctant going to Castlebar. Pearse Stadium has issues in relation to traffic, so they chose the Hyde.

Out of interest did it reach the 23,500 capacity on Sunday?

[Tubberman]

We weren't the only ones to complain about the choice of venue, were we?
If you care to remember, the Sligo CB complained as well- and with damned good reason too

Was just a untrue rumour that spread around during the build up it seems.

Roscommon County Board Chairman Michael Fahey quote.

some of the stuff that has been said and written is utterly untrue. The harsh reality is that a Connacht final in Salthill would have resulted in traffic problems at the height of the summer," he stated.

The chairman confirmed that Sligo had opted for Dr. Hyde Park and that the capacity of the stadium would be raised from 18,900 to 23,500 for the provincial showpiece on Sunday week.

"Sligo had the choice where the game would take place. They were obviously reluctant going to Castlebar. Pearse Stadium has issues in relation to traffic, so they chose the Hyde.

Out of interest did it reach the 23,500 capacity on Sunday?

It was announced as a sell out with no tickets to be sold outside the ground, so I presume it did (allowing for no-shows on the day).